‘White hats’ take 4000 BTC from Liquid, ETFs see best week of 2026: Hodler’s Digest

On the Liquid sidechain, supposed "white hat" hackers removed 4,000 Bitcoin, valued at around $319 million, from the network. The attackers claimed responsibility through a cryptic OP_RETURN message. The Blockstream-run Liquid Network has temporarily disabled bridge nodes and urged exchanges to halt LBTC deposits and withdrawals while they investigate the security breach.

The Liquid explorer recorded the federation wallet's balance dropping from 4,200 BTC to just 207.275 BTC. Liquid Network stated that the funds were withdrawn using the SideSwap PAK, but the key was not compromised. Crypto analyst DBCrypto believes the incident more accurately depicts a whitehat extraction than a theft, but raised concerns about the security of the sidechain.

The US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their best three-week inflow stretch of 2026, with $986.9 million in net inflows in the week ending Friday. Bitcoin has not exceeded the 50-week moving average, but signs of a bull market are emerging. Bitcoin ETFs attracted $3.8 billion in net inflows over the past three weeks, bringing total net assets to $101.3 billion.

While crypto enthusiasts celebrate Robinhood's success, the company's CEO Adam Aron expressed outrage over the tokenization of AMC stock without his approval. Robinhood co-founder Vlad Tenev dismissed Aron's concerns, leading to a heated exchange on X. A group of 21 major financial institutions plans to create a new company to develop and issue stablecoins, with a US dollar-denominated stablecoin expected in the first half of 2027.

G20 member nations also released a joint statement supporting crypto as a catalyst for "broad-based economic growth." Prediction market platform Kalshi banned ousted Republican lawmaker George Santos for life due to his alleged insider trading on event contracts.